


homo homini lupus

by almostannette



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Arranged Marriage, Experimental Style, Identity Switch, M/M, Memory Loss, Murder, Referenced Non-Con - Freeform, Violence, Virginity Loss, fairytale AU, inspired by Red Riding Hood, inspired by The Goose Girl, lolita references, repost of a deleted work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-30
Updated: 2019-11-30
Packaged: 2021-02-26 15:53:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21620740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/almostannette/pseuds/almostannette
Summary: A man with no memories.A prince who’s been sold.A wolf in knight’s clothing.…look at this tangle of thorns.IMPORTANT: I wrote this fic in 2017, but I've deleted it since because I was not happy with the format and the style. I've made some changes and hopefully the plot is clearer now.
Relationships: Credence Barebone/Gellert Grindelwald, Credence Barebone/Original Percival Graves, Credence Barebone/Percival Graves | Gellert Grindelwald
Comments: 4
Kudos: 21





	homo homini lupus

**Author's Note:**

> I tried writing in a more experimental style than I usually do, and this was the result :)

  1. Credence is counting down the days until he comes of age – until the day he’s going to be married to the knight to whom his mother promised him without Credence’s consent.
  2. There might have been talking about diplomatic relations and political alliances, but Credence knows what happened to him. He’s been sold to a man twice his age.
  3. Three months before his eighteenth birthday, Credence receives a message that Percival is on his way, bound to arrive in a few days’ time. Credence starts to shiver with dread.
  4. Percival travels towards the man – boy – he is supposed to marry. He is accompanied on his journey by his man-servant Gellert. Credence would have something to say about the glint in Gellert’s eyes and the sharpness of his teeth. All the better to devour you with, my dear boy.
  5. The name of the man who is to wed him as soon as Credence turns eighteen is Percival. Credence has never met Percival, but the name has haunted him for all his life; it belongs to a monster without a face.
  6. Gellert’s curse catches Percival unaware.
  7. Credence knows a thing or two about predators and, lacking a portrait of his ominous fiancé, Credence imagines him as a wolf.
  8. The last thing Percival remembers is his body twisting and tearing itself apart, taking on a brand-new shape.
  9. _Obliviate!_
  10. His mother fists a hand into Credence’s hair. Your fiancé is going to arrive soon, she says, and Credence better not embarrass her in any way, or else. Credence barely reacts; he can only think of his faceless, wolf-like fiancé. For the first time in his life, someone scares him more than his mother.
  11. A man wakes up. He does not remember.
  12. Credence has grown up with an evil mother who sold him to a wolf. He is set to be married to the older man in a couple of weeks. Will the beast at least have the courtesy to kill his mother before it devours Credence?
  13. An impeccably dressed man steps into his field of vision. An aura of importance surrounds him and makes him look taller than he is. The man lifts a stick – a wand, his mind supplies out of nowhere – and he _remembers_.
  14. His name is Gellert, he is a wizard and he serves Percival. He grew up in far-away land, speaking a different, harsher language. His memories of his home country have a dream-like quality to them, nothing ties him to the land he supposedly left behind, nothing, except for his foreign-sounding name and the accent he’d never quite managed to shake.
  15. I’m hoping for a frightened, young thing, Percival says with a cruel smirk. I love it when they cry, he adds, wouldn’t you agree? Gellert bites the inside of his cheek and nods.
  16. His fiancé arrives and Credence senses that the future holds bloodshed.
  17. Credence sees Percival for the first time, the cruel set of his mouth, his hard eyes and the fear swells and swirls inside his ribcage, threatening to break free at any moment.
  18. Gellert is ordered to work as a stableman – he cannot remember working this job before, but Gellert accepts Percival’s order. He works, day in and day out, and observes Percival with a watchful eye, and the man’s sad, downtrodden fiancé, too.
  19. With each day that he becomes better acquainted with the man who is to be his husband, Credence’s dread grows. Percival hasn’t touched him in any way that would ruin Credence for the wedding night, but has done other things. Credence remembers hands holding his head in place, fingernails like claws digging into his skin. His jaw aches.
  20. Credence slips out at night to avoid Percival. Credence has lived his entire life in the shadows, hiding from his mother and other predators. He is good at going unnoticed.
  21. Gellert spots the creature before it spots him. Wobbly legs like a fawn that’s just learning to walk on its own, large doe eyes, a fragile beauty that’s just waiting to be broken by capable hands. Percival’s fiancé, Credence.
  22. Credence asks Gellert for advice on how to deal with Percival. Gellert fails miserably at giving it to him. His memory is not what it used to be, he thinks, but he can at least offer Credence comfort and kindness. While Gellert doesn’t remember much about Percival (or much about anything), he knows that no kind words will ever spill from his master’s mouth.
  23. Gellert rebuilds his life out of scraps of memories and half-remembered truths. Somehow, quite accidentally, Credence becomes a vital part in it.
  24. Credence likes the quiet foreigner who arrived with his fiancé. He cannot give him much information about Percival and his face twists oddly whenever Credence mentions his fiancé’s name, but he makes him feel better and brings a completely inappropriate blush to Credence’s cheeks.
  25. One evening – their secret meet-ups have long since become a regular occurrence – Credence thinks the unthinkable and muses that he wouldn’t mind being married off if Gellert were to be his husband.
  26. Gellert finds himself enchanted by Credence, even though this should be impossible. Between the two of them, Gellert is the wizard able to cast spells to enthrall another, yet Credence has nevertheless managed to utterly bewitch him.
  27. Credence confesses his feelings, three weeks before the wedding, and expects Gellert to give him a speech about propriety and their respective social standing.
  28. Instead, Gellert takes Credence’s face into his large, calloused hands and peppers it with soft things that have little to do with the brutal, disgusting slide of tongue and the unwelcome bite of too sharp teeth that Percival calls kisses.
  29. After that first kiss, Credence understands why lovers do this, why this feels good and intoxicating and with each subsequent kiss, Credence’s hatred for Percival grows.
  30. Percival alternately makes threats and cruel jokes about the wedding night; hot, putrid whispers against Credence’s ear. I will hurt you, he says. I love the sound of your screams.
  31. Credence comes to him one night, less than a week away from the wedding with tears in his eyes. Make love to me, he says, I want to have one good memory _he_ can’t take away from me. The phrase does strange things to Gellert’s mind, but he reminds himself that Credence’s well-being is more important than his own and so Gellert obeys.
  32. Gellert takes him into his bed, fit for a beggar or maybe a peasant, but certainly not for a prince. Before he does anything, Gellert tells Credence to imagine that _this_ is his wedding night, not the travesty that awaits him in a few days’ time with Percival.
  33. Credence thinks about closing his eyes and lying still on the bed – he has been told that this was the best way to make it through a wedding night. Still, his fingers itch with the need to touch Gellert and he desperately wants to see him, wants to catalogue every single thing about the man.
  34. They shed their clothes and Gellert mutters a self-deprecating apology about his age, but Credence quietly shakes his head and tells him that he is beautiful. Credence explores Gellert’s body, at first with his fingers and then with his lips and his tongue. Words are exchanged. Gellert whispers a spell under his breath and suddenly there’s a slick finger pressing into Credence.
  35. Credence bares his neck for Gellert, spreads his legs, too, and Gellert takes what ought to have been Percival’s. Betrayal has never tasted sweeter than Credence’s lips.
  36. Percival won’t have me, Credence says. He always gets what he wants, Gellert replies. He’s already got you, he doesn’t add. No, Credence shakes his head. This time, he won’t.
  37. Credence has grown up listening to fairytales – he knows that a wolf may be slain.
  38. The smell of sex hangs heavy in the air of Gellert’s room. Credence, naked and sweaty as he is, swears an oath to himself.
  39. The wedding, in hindsight, is a comedic farce. Credence thinks of Gellert, mutters until death do us part and Percival thinks of what he wants to do to the thin, trembling body at his side. He bares his teeth and suppresses a growl.
  40. Credence endures the reception and Percival’s touches, that become ever more indecent the more wine he ingests. Still, Credence gives him a placid smile and refills his glass time and time again, only wincing minimally whenever Percival touches anything that, in Credence’s mind, rightfully belongs to Gellert.
  41. Foolish boy, don’t you know that drink makes me more aggressive? More brutal? That it unleashes the monster I usually keep chained up so well? Nothing can save you from what I’m about to do to you.
  42. The alcohol makes Percival slower, that is enough.
  43. What are you now, Percival slurs, as he looms over Credence and prepares to take his husband for the first time. Nothing but a shivering, stammering mess, begging for my mercy.
  44. Free, Credence says. Free at last, and he stabs a knife close to Percival’s loins, cutting into the artery so the bleeding cannot be stopped in time.
  45. Percival laughs and mutters a healing spell. Falters, casts another and another after that, but the bleeding won’t stop. It’s Credence’s turn to laugh.
  46. A cursed blade which leaves untreatable wounds. Gellert has enchanted it for him, with the words that Credence be careful with it. Credence ever so carefully rams the blade into Percival’s stomach.
  47. Credence has listened to fairytales for all his life – he knows that third time’s the charm.
  48. Bleeding out on the marital bed, Percival stares up at the brutal, merciless expression on his husband’s face. Despite all the pain, he manages to smile. This must be what love feels like, is his last coherent thought before Credence slits Percival’s throat.
  49. Credence has slain the wolf and is carrying the blade with him, safely tucked away. Once you get a taste for something…
  50. Credence comes to Gellert dressed in a blood-stained wedding suit, the red a violent contrast to its original white color. There is a strange, wicked glint in his eyes.
  51. They flee. They could go to Gellert’s old home country, he says, and he spins yarn after yarn for Credence, painting a picture of small towns surrounded by forests and mountains he thinks he remembers, but has never actually seen in his life.
  52. The man without memories and the prince with blood on his hands walk side by side towards an uncertain future. They leave behind the dead body of the queen and the rotting corpse of the wolf.



**Author's Note:**

> If you've liked the fic, feel free to leave kudos and/or comments!


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